Political debate left the deployment of 5G in Belgium at a standstill for years, but the wait is coming to an end: the country is finally poised to enter the 5G market in earnest with the long-awaited allocation of 5G spectrum taking place in June 2022.
Universal 5G coverage is set to impact all sectors of the Belgian economy, with particularly noteworthy applications for the manufacturing, transport, and services sectors. The Belgian Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunications (BIPT) estimates that the upcoming auction is expected to bring in €800 million in revenue, which will be placed in escrow until Belgium’s government agrees on how the money should be distributed at the federal and state level.
What is 5G?
5G, the fifth generation of mobile networks, supports more devices than previous networks, reduces latency, and increases speeds to up to 20 times over its predecessor. Its flexible architecture allows for “network slicing,” or the creation of many individual networks that can be tailored to specific needs. It enables the exchange of huge volumes of data in real time, and the data generated by smart devices can be analysed through edge computing, where data is processed and stored closer to its source to gain faster insight into usage.